Garden tips

by Connie Oswald Stofko I was very fortunate to be able to go outside yesterday afternoon and work with my leaves– and I have lots of them. My wonderful neighbor raked her leaves into my driveway so that I could crunch them up with my lawnmower. Another friend cleaned up her mother’s yard and...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko “Don’t wait until April to call a landscaper if you’re hoping to have your landscape done in May,” said said Claire Brown, CNLP, president and designer at A Growing Business, 11554 Wyandale Rd., Springville. That’s her first tip on what a gardener should do when working with a landscaper. The...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko You can never have too many tips for keeping deer and rabbits away from our plants. Even if we find something that works, the animals often get used to that technique and we have to try something else. Here are a bunch of tips. One is from me, but the...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko This would have been a great weekend for raking leaves. The sun was shining, the weather was mild, and I wanted to do something outside in the yard. Unfortunately, most of the leaves in my neighborhood are still firmly adhered to the trees. This happens to me at this time...Read More »

Use the last of the season’s leaves as a natural mulch to enrich soil, conserve moisture and protect plants against changes in soil temperature. That’s just one of the tips you’ll get in the article on what you should do this month in the garden, part of this month’s issue of WNY Gardening Matters,...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko A couple of simple tests can tell you what steps you have to take to improve your soil– or let you know that you are already on the right track. There are three kinds of tests you might do, said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko Maggie Koste Patz of West Seneca planted spinach last fall and by mid-March, the spinach was doing well. “ I recall feasting on that patch around May 25,” Patz said. If you want to harvest some food before you’ve even planted your tomatoes, use Patz’s trick: old milk jugs. Patz...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko Until this week, it felt more like summer than autumn in Western New York. Last week I was wearing shorts, then yesterday I snuggled into a winter jacket. There was scattered frost overnight last night in Western New York. But as they say, if you don’t like the weather in...Read More »

The October issue of WNY Gardening Matters, published by the Master Gardeners of Erie County Cornell Cooperative Extension, is full of tips on what you should do in your garden now as we prepare for winter. Find out what you can plant now, what you should cut back and what you have to bring...Read More »

by Connie Oswald Stofko I saw some beautiful gardens when I was in Atlanta a couple weeks ago to attend the conference of GWA: The Association of Garden Communicators. But since the climate is so different there, I wasn’t sure I would be able to bring back any tips that would help us here...Read More »